Abstract

Objective: This study sought to examine if hypervigilance is one mechanism through which aspects of less supportive campus climates are associated with mental health symptoms for college students. Participants: Data from 386 undergraduate college students attending a small college in the northeastern United States were collected. Methods: Participants completed online surveys which employed established measures of study variables. Results: Hypervigilance mediated the association between subjective social status and symptoms of anxiety and depression; lower subjective social status was associated with greater hypervigilance and greater hypervigilance was associated with more symptoms of anxiety and depression. Less sense of community was also directly associated with more anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. Conclusions: Hypervigilance may be an adaptive strategy to protect against psychosocial harm for low status members of the campus community, but may damage longer-term mental health. Implications for higher education administrators are discussed.

摘要

目标：本研究旨在检验过度警惕是否是一种机制，通过这种机制，支持性较低的校园气候方面与大学生的心理健康症状相关。参与者：收集了来自美国东北部一所小型大学的 386 名本科大学生的数据。方法：参与者完成了在线调查，这些调查采用既定的研究变量测量方法。结果：过度警惕介导了主观社会地位与焦虑和抑郁症状之间的关联；较低的主观社会地位与更高的过度警惕性相关，而更高的过度警惕性与更多的焦虑和抑郁症状相关。较少的社区意识也与更多的焦虑、抑郁和躯体症状直接相关。结论：过度警惕可能是一种适应性策略，可以保护校园社区低地位成员免受社会心理伤害，但可能会损害长期心理健康。讨论了对高等教育管理者的影响。